Category: Fantasy Basketball (Page 198 of 274)

      Bynum to miss six 8-12 weeks with torn MCL

      February 2, 2009 /

      Andrew Bynum is hurt again. On Saturday against the Grizzlies, Kobe Bryant landed on the big man’s knee, knocking him out for at least a few weeks. Reports are sketchy, but the Daily News is reporting that he’ll be out six weeks.

      The preliminary diagnosis is that Bynum suffered a sprained right knee against Memphis Saturday and will miss the next six weeks. But it could be longer, and the damage could be more serious, pending results of an MRI taken yesterday in Manhattan.

      So six weeks would mean that Bynum would potentially be back in mid-March, giving him about a month to get in shape for the Lakers’ playoff run. Does any of this seem familiar? Bynum was supposed to be back for last year’s playoffs but it never happened.

      And this is probably a best case scenario. If the MRI reveals more damage to the knee, it’s entirely possible that Bynum will miss the playoffs yet again.

      Expect Pau Gasol to move over to play center full time with Lamar Odom getting most of the minutes at power foward. I wouldn’t expect Odom to be traded before the deadline with Bynum’s status up in the air. This is exactly why the Lakers chose to hold onto him despite several trade offers — he’s great insurance if Bynum or Gasol were to go down.

      Afternoon Update: The OC Register is reporting that Bynum has a MCL tear and is expected to miss 8-12 weeks. Twelve weeks would put Bynum’s return a week or two into the playoffs.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, NBA Finals, Rumors & Gossip

      Does Chris Bosh want out of Toronto?

      February 2, 2009 /

      The answer is yes, according to Stephen A. Smith. Bosh has apparently told the team he doesn’t have any interest in staying in Toronto, and Smith said that Miami and Dallas were likely suitors in a possible trade.

      Bosh’s contract runs through the 2009-10 season, so he is one of the members of the vaunted free agent class of 2010. Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo is no dummy, so his first step will be to try to convince Bosh to stay. If that fails, there’s a chance that the team could move him before the trade deadline, which is about three weeks away. They should be able to get more for Bosh now than during the offseason since whatever team trading for him will have his services for the remainder of this season and the playoffs.

      Smith mentioned the Heat and the Mavericks as possible trade partners. Miami’s major trading chip is Shawn Marion, but he’s in the final year of his contract and most of the league seems to be unwilling to pay him what they believe he is going to ask this summer. For that reason, trading for the Matrix is a dicey proposition. In Dallas, Josh Howard would presumably be the centerpiece of a deal for Bosh, though he has now stated publicly that he wants to stay in Dallas.

      One team that should put a trade offer together is the Cleveland Cavaliers. They do have Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring contract ($13 M), so the Raptors could get immediate salary cap relief. They could package Wally’s contract with J.J. Hickson and two or three future first round picks and see if the Raptors bite. It would be a heck of a lot easier to re-sign LeBron if Bosh were already in Cleveland.

      I’d also like to see the Bucks make a play for the talented power forward. Would the Raptors take Michael Redd and Charlie Villanueva for Bosh? I realize that Bosh would be unlikely to re-sign unless the Bucks vaulted into the top four in the East, but with a starting lineup of Ramon Sessions, Charlie Bell, Richard Jefferson, Bosh and Andrew Bogut, that would be one of the better teams in the East.

      I really don’t know what happened to the Raptors. After re-signing Jose Calderon to a long-term deal, acquiring Jermaine O’Neal to help down low, and the emergence of Andrea Bargnani as a legitimate scorer, the Raptors should be a lot better than they are. They’ve already lost two in a row and they have the Lakers, Cavs and Hornets coming up in a brutal three-game stretch. And now the news breaks that their franchise player doesn’t want to return.

      Things are bad in Toronto.

      2/2 Update: Bryan Colangelo says the rumors about Bosh not wanting to re-sign with Toronto are untrue.

      “It isn’t true,” said Colangelo. “It’s a complete fabrication.”

      “It’s a non-story. Stephen A. got a little carried away. I’ve e-mailed him to talk about it but he’s in bed with the flu. Maybe the basketball Gods have something to do with that. I don’t know where that story came from.”

      It will be interesting to see what Smith has to say about this. He didn’t cite a source or act like he was breaking a story; he just said that Bosh has already told the team he doesn’t want to return as if it were common knowledge. I’d like to see Smith defend himself here.

      2/3 Update: Chris Bosh speaks out about the story.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Mo Williams upset about All-Star snub

      January 30, 2009 /

      The All-Star reserves were announced last night and Mo Williams’ name was not on the list. And he’s none too happy about it.

      The Magic will get three All-Stars—Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis now as well as starting center Dwight Howard—but the Cavs, despite having the best record in the NBA, will only send LeBron James.

      Really, it came down to Nelson or Williams, and Mo first and foremost didn’t want to take anything away from his colleague.

      “Congratulations to him,” Williams said with a smile. “He deserves it, but there’s only a certain amount of players that can play.”

      “You want me to tell you like it is?” Williams chuckled. “Then I’ll tell it like it is. It’s a tragedy. How many players get into the game, and how many players did the Magic get in? They’ve got three players, and we’ve got the best record. Not just in the Eastern Conference, but in the whole league… Best team in the world, and we got one player.”

      The guy’s got a point, and [Ben] Wallace’s got his back.

      “He took us from a team that was on the verge of competing for a championship to making us a legit championship contender,” Wallace added.

      I disagree with Wallace that Williams is the main reason that the Cavs are playing as well as they are (or were, before getting trounced by the Magic last night). LeBron has returned from his stint with Team USA with a focus on defense, and that has translated to the rest of the team. He even has Williams gaining a rep for being a decent defender, which is something that has plagued him throughout his career.

      Here are the YTD stats for Williams and Nelson:

      Williams: 16.92 PER (#16 PG), 17.0 p, 4.1 a, 3.3 r, 0.8 s, 47% FG, 38% 3PT, 94% FT

      Nelson: 20.94 PER (#4 PG), 16.9 p, 5.3 a, 3.4 r, 1.2 s, 51% FG, 45% 3PT, 88% FT

      The two players are essentially the same in points and rebounds. Mo has an advantage in free throw percentage, but Jameer has a big advantage in assists, steals, FG% and three-point accuracy. Moreover, Williams plays an extra two minutes per game, so he has more time to post stats. Clearly, from the Player Efficiency Rating, Nelson is the far more productive and efficient player.

      Williams has also come up fairly small in the Cavs’ three “marquee” games this season. He shot 6-16 in a bad loss against the Lakers on Jan. 19 and posted just 13 points and one assist against the Celtics on Jan. 9. That trend continued after the reserves were announced when he shot just 4-15 from the field against the Magic last night.

      So this comes down to how many players elite teams should get on the All-Star team. I actually think that Mo is more deserving than Rashard Lewis, but that Nelson is more deserving than Williams. But this probably has to do more with LeBron than anything. He is viewed as a one-man wrecking crew and that will automatically discount the contributions of his teammates. Throw in the fact that Allen Iverson was voted in by the fans and it was obvious that someone was going to get screwed. It happens every year.

      Williams has a gripe, but Jameer Nelson deserves to be an All-Star, there’s no doubt about that.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Danny Granger’s effective throwback game

      January 29, 2009 /

      Former NBA player Eddie Johnson wrote a nice piece for HoopsHype about how Danny Granger uses “Old Man Moves” to score easily and efficiently.

      Granger is a very good athlete, but someone has gotten in his ear and convinced Granger that playing below the rim will give him a tremendous advantage and save wear and tear on his body while still putting up huge numbers. I watched him a few weeks ago against the Suns and marveled at how he easily scored using a method we called back in the day Old Man Moves.

      (Definition: Old Man Moves means a player who is mentally tough and has a smorgasbord of shots that keeps the defense wondering and off balance. He plays below the rim. He takes what the defense gives him. He plays with a level head. He does not waste energy with his dribble. He uses his teammates to get open. He uses a variety of shots to score. He takes big shots and makes them in the fourth quarter. He gets to the free throw line to maintain consistent confidence and he comes to score every night and is relentless).

      Granger would drive to the basket and when Shaq and Amare Stoudemire went high in the air to challenge him, he in turn went economical and went low for easy non-spectacular shots. Most players in today’s NBA think poster or mano-a-mano, which is fine if you are LeBron, Kobe, Wade, Amare or Vince Carter. These players can elevate higher than everyone, but Granger somehow realizes his percentage of winning that battle is not in his favor. So he pulls up for the basic 12-foot shot or he shoots a running hook or maybe he uses his off hand. And I have also seen him execute the up and under – very much Old Man Moves.

      I am intimately familiar with Old Man Moves, but not by choice. I had decent leaping ability in high school and could dunk with (relative) ease, but after a couple of knee scopes in college and playing on maybe the most unforgiving court in the country at UW-Platteville, I was definitely a below-the-rim kind of a player. (I swear they just laid the wood right on top of concrete. The floor had absolutely no give at all, which made it difficult to elevate.)

      But back to Granger, who has increased his scoring by an average of 6.1 points per game in each of his four seasons in the NBA. He was amongst my original picks for the All-Star Game, and I think he’s an easy choice. The Pacers may be 18-28, but their points scored/points allowed differential is only -2.4, so they have been competitive. Granger is 4th in the league in scoring (25.8) and he is 9th in the league in three-point percentage (39.9%) amongst players that take more than five treys per game.

      The bottom line is that the Pacers don’t have a lot of firepower, so opponents know that Granger is their main threat. And they still can’t stop him.

      Let’s hope the coaches recognize this and put this guy on the All-Star team.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Is Elton Brand on the trading block?

      January 28, 2009 /

      The answer is yes, according to Chad Ford’s sources. Here’s exactly what Ford said in a recent chat.

      …from what my sources around the league are saying, Brand is available. The question is, given how poorly he’s played this year and his huge contract, does anyone want him?

      When asked a different question (about the Heat), Ford also mentioned Brand.

      I think they have to see whether they can pry Boozer or Elton Brand for Marion. I think both are possible and both are better long term fits than O’Neal. The one positive for O’Neal is that he’s off the books in 2010. That gives the Heat LOTS of cap space in the summer of 2010. Of all the markets trying to clear cap … Miami is one of the most desirable for NBA free agents. The fact that Wade and Michael Beasley are there won’t hurt recruiting either.

      The Heat have seemingly moved away from signing a power forward like Boozer or Brand because they think that it is Beasley’s natural position. Offensively, he can play either forward position, but defensively, he’s going to have a tough time covering opposing small forwards. So that would seem to cross Miami off a list of possible destinations for Brand though the two sides have had a long romance. Brand signed an offer sheet with the Heat when he first became a restricted free agent and the Clippers matched.

      Given the way that Brand has played this season (PER: 14.63, #33 amongst power forwards), I’m sure teams are hesitant to take on the four years and $66 million remaining on his contract. The main problem is his accuracy from the field. Brand is a career 50% shooter, yet he has only made 45% of his shots this season. His blocks are down as well, so one wonders if he has lost some of his athleticism. Of course, he’s been injured so he has only appeared in 25 games and the Sixers have been playing pretty well without him.

      It will be interesting to see if Philly moves him before the trade deadline. If they do, it will be a 180-degree shift from last offseason when everyone (including me) was praising the franchise for acquiring Brand. For the record, after his Achilles injury, I didn’t see Brand as a “max” player, but the Sixers needed to pony up to pry him away from the Clippers and the Warriors. It looks like they took a risk and it hasn’t paid off, at least not yet.

      Now the question is — will someone else roll the dice on Elton?

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

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